certainly, i would expect the administration to be engaged in that process throughout. blake? let me ask you a couple of questions about healthcare. they said a couple of times in the remarks a little while ago that at this point he ll just let obamacare fail. why is it acceptable policy to let obamacare fail? i think in large part, look, democrats have refused to join in fixing the healthcare problems that have plagued our healthcare system, specifically in large part due to obamacare. obamacare s failures. that sort of i think behavior is simply unacceptable. and hopefully with the collapse of the program that they put in place they will be more willing to come to the table and clean up the mess president. another comment about the timing going forward. the president said, quote, something will happen and it will be good. it may not be as quick as we
if that ended up on his desk. you know i don t have an announcement to make on specifics, that hasn t hit his desk. but i think right now we re certainly open to considering all options to reform healthcare and make sure that americans get the best care possible. the president earlier today had a luncheon with service members and said he wanted to hear ideas about the war in afghanistan. can you tell us about any ideas that he heard? he clearly isn t happy how long the u.s. has been in afghanistan. will he reject the plan from mattis of keeping the u.s. there long term? in terms of specifics that were discussed at the meeting i ll see if i can get any of those ideas, if that s something that those individuals want to share. the president felt it was important to talk directly to some of the servicemen that have been on the ground and hear some of their feedback and their thoughts about what s taking place there. some of the progress being made. in regards to mattis and the
burdensome regulations, butting isis on the run, securing the border, protecting our country, taking steps every single day to help improve the lives of the forgotten man. he certainly delivered on a lot of those things. and we re going to continue to do that. every single day that he s in office. sarah, also, in terms of what the president said a little bit earlier and also what he tweeted earlier, spoke about coming together. does that indicate that the president is open to some sort of bipartisan solution to fixing what is wrong with the affordable care act? absolutely. the president said all along that he, his primary goal is to fund a solution. he s happy to work with democrats to get it done. francesca? you said the administration would want congress to finish work on healthcare and then move on to taxes. previously the white house has said that it wanted to see a
hard to make that happen. does that go for two republican incumbent senators jeff blake and dean heller who were not onboard with this healthcare plan? due to legal restrictions i won t get into potential election questions. thank you, sara. two questions, please. john roberts is bored, he s headed out. [groaning] two questions. even before senator mcconnell s statement last night and speaker ryan s press conference, the concept of an outright repeal was cause du jour in the house of representatives, meeting of conservative lawmakers on thursday who ared a a mapt about it, congressman biggs introduced the bill for direction. is there any possibility the administration would at least sit down and join the cause for
that? i think he s not going to own the failure of obamacare. exactly what i said to matthew. the failure of obamacare i think rests solely on the shoulders of democrats. they created the programs, they pushed it through, they made this legislation happen. and they need to own the failure of it. during the press conference the president had at trump tower, asked about healthcare, he said that there would be repeal and replace the same week but probably the same day, could be the same hour. did this turn out to be a lot more difficult than he anticipated? certainly i think that after hearing members of congress talk about repealing and replacing obamacare for seven years, i think that most people thought it would probably move a little bit faster. what did we learn about the way congress works in the process, what did he learn about